A big fat NOTHIN'!!!

What a freaking tease! Ike had us in his sights for quite a while, but in the last 36 hours before landfall made a pretty significant move. It only shifted about 100 miles up the coast, but because of the way it hit and immediately moved northward instead of continuing west it left us with a windy night, but not much more. As of now (noon central time on Saturday) we haven't even seen a drop of rain. They keep telling us to expect some hellish thunderstorms to be spun off the hurricane later today but I just don't see it.

Obviously the folks a little up the coast didn't make out quite so well. Honestly I wish the thing had kept it's path down this way. It would have devastated the shrimping industry and the bulk of the fishing community on the coast, but the rest would have been ranch and ag land vs. the 4th largest city in the country. Not to mention, it's a heck of a lot easier to evacuate the 70,000 people that live in the 3 or 4 counties down this way compared to the millions up there.

Anyway, nothing can be done now! We're just waiting to hear from co-workers whose homes and workplaces were in the direct path of the storm to see what kind of help they need. We'll probably be heading up to East Texas on Monday or so to help our folks up there cut their way into their homes in the pineywoods area of Texas. They are still getting hammered pretty hard right now and the whole area still looks like pick-up sticks from the last few storms.

Anyway, thanks for the phone calls and text messages, etc. Much appreciated!!!

For the love of...

I'm getting kind of tired of these hurricane teases. I can't say that I really look forward to getting hit dead on, but I'm getting tired of watching people run around freaking out only to barely see any effect. That said, I'd much rather be in a place where people are prepared, but we were prepared for the last three storms, now it's just becoming a joke. I might feel differently if I owned my home, or had kids to deal with, etc. but I don't, so bring it the &#%@ on!!!

The image below shows the current projected paths for the next one, along with a big ole' red X in the lovely town I call home. Looks like chances are pretty good this time around, but when I lived in Florida we always joked that the only way to avoid a storm was to be predicted as the target the whole time! We'll see what happens this time!



Updated...now we're talkin! I think that hurricane magnet on my ass from a few months back has been reactivated and now Ike is just waiting for me to bend over! Come and get it, Ike!




UPDATE:

It will pretty much be a non-event for me now. The storm shifted 100 miles up the coast and put us on the "dry" side of the storm. We're still under a voluntary evac they enacted when we were in the direct path but they shut down the assisted evac center and sent the national guard folks further up the coast late this morning. We'll see tropical storm winds and maybe some hurricane gusts but it's doubtful. The power has been flickering for the last hour, but we lose power when someone farts in the right direction so it's a no brainer that we'll probably be without power at some point. I'm pulling for tonight while I'm sleeping. That would be just bueno.